If you were present at the first IVA Gala in Regina on May 2018, you would have heard the clamour and felt the thrill of a talented, high-spirited crowd. Published and unpublished writers sat shoulder to shoulder. On one side were the poets, glamourous and raucous, laughter that indicated that they were, or were about to become, old friends. On the other side were novelists, engrossed in conversation. Several publishers were present, some who had met in Toronto the previous year for the Indigenous Editing Circle, were going from table to table reacquainting themselves. One unpublished short story writer tucked her and her family upstairs in the balcony where it was quieter, to visit. And literature professors were everywhere, watching, gleeful, as they chatted to one another and kept a shy distance from the literati, who were clearly the stars of the show. A total of $26,000.00 was given to Emerging Indigenous Voices, a mix of published and unpublished authors who are destined to change what we read.

All of this was made possible by your support. A genuine thank you to all of you who have contributed to the Indigenous Voices Awards.

ILSA and the IVA Directors are excited to announce the second year of the awards, for works published or created in 2018. We are both ambitious, to imagine an award that lasts into perpetuity and cautious, mindful of the current limitations of the fund.

We invite you to donate to the IVAs by clicking the donate button on the Welcome page of the Indigenousvoicesawards.org; you will be directed to the page of the national charitable organization that is holding our funds, the Ontario Arts Foundation, and be asked to select a fund; after you choose the “Indigenous Voices Awards Fund” and donate, a tax receipt will be issued to you.

Thank you.

IVAs Background

The Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs) were established in 2017 to support and nurture the work of Indigenous writers in lands claimed by Canada. Funds for the awards were raised initially through a crowd-funded campaigns by Robin Parker and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, who partnered with the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA) for the awards’ administration. While an initial fundraising goal of $10,000 to support emerging Indigenous writers was set, the grass-roots initiatives raised $116,565 in four months. These monies have since been supplemented by further donations from various groups and individuals.

The IVAs, in their second year, 2018-19 will be honouring “Emerging” Indigenous writers, with a number of awards for unpublished works and for published works; the results of the 2018 competition will be announced in the Spring of 2019. The dollar amounts for these awards will be determined based on the recommendations of the IVA Board and the amount available in the Trust Fund, with an attentiveness to sustainability.

The Indigenous Voices Awards aim to support Indigenous literary production in its diversity and complexity, understanding Indigenous literatures to include but not be limited to novels, creative non-fiction, short stories, poetry, orality, graphic novels, comics, slam, drama, music lyrics, screenwriting, and other forms. The awards honour the sovereignty of Indigenous creative voices and reject cultural appropriation; to be eligible for the Indigenous Voices Awards, authors must be Indigenous and must make a declaration of Indigenous identity. The awards are intended to support Indigenous artistic communities and to resist the individualism of prize culture. As such, the IVA Board will endeavour to create opportunities for mentorship, professionalization, and creative collaboration among applicants, jurors, and other members of the Indigenous artistic community when possible.

On “Emerging” and “Established” Writer

While for many people the category of “emerging writer” implies youth, ILSA and the prize committee recognize that there are Indigenous artists of diverse ages who are finding their voice as writers, including many older people and even quite a few elders. Our definition of “emerging” is not focused on age but on the writer’s history of publication. For the purposes of these awards, “emerging” refers to writers who are thus far unpublished or whose substantive publication history is seven years or less and who have published fewer than three books. Writers whose work is outside those parameters but who feel that they should be considered in this competition are asked to provide a brief statement of no more than 300 words on their eligibility. In such cases, the IVA Board will provide final determination of eligibility for the jury to consider. “Established” writers are those with a publishing history of more than seven years or that includes three or more published books (or the equivalent in an alternative format) at the point of submitting materials for the competition.